LSU (8-0) started with a 16-0 run, added another 16-0 run before
halftime and then widened the lead to as many as 65 points in
the second half despite third-year coach Van Chancellor, himself
a Hall of Famer, using his bench liberally.

"We should have won by that margin and we did," said Chancellor,
off to his best start at LSU. "We did what we were supposed to
do, and that's good."

Houston Baptist (2-8) lost by 69 points to Duke and by 79 to TCU
earlier this season.

"Coach (Chancellor) has been like another dad to me," said
Houston Baptist coach Todd Buchanan, who became friends with
Chancellor when the latter was coaching the WNBA's now defunct
Houston Comets. "I just wish Dad hadn't whipped us so hard."

LSU advanced to Wednesday's championship game against North
Carolina A&T, which beat Louisiana-Lafayette 95-78.

Coming off a 57-33 win over New Orleans on Sunday when it shot
just 35 percent from the field, LSU had few scoring lapses
against Houston Baptist.

The Lady Tigers shot 53.4 percent and committed only eight
turnovers, despite the fact that no LSU starter played more than
19 minutes.

Point guard Latear Eason had 12 points, five assists and three
steals in just 17 minutes. She and forward Taylor Turnbow led
LSU in scoring, as five Lady Tigers reached double figures and
all 12 players who got in the game scored.

"Latear Eason was outstanding tonight," Chancellor said.

LSU's defense was just as impressive as its season-high scoring
output.

"It was the most athletic, quick, lengthy team we've faced,"
Buchanan said. "Everyone on that team is an athlete, and that's
the thing we tried to simulate in our practices. Sometimes we'd
play 6-on-5."

At times it looked like LSU had an extra player on the court.

For a few moments at least, Eason was thinking shutout.

"It's hard to completely shut down a team. We knew they would
score at some point," Eason said seriously. "We just wanted to
come out and play hard."

LSU's reserves gave a strong effort, led by 11 points from
junior guard Erica Williams, a transfer from Southern
Mississippi who scored her first points as a Lady Tiger. Backups
Jasmine Nelson and Swayze Black each had a team-high eight
rebounds.

Getting valuable minutes off the bench could prove even more
crucial for LSU in the future.

Chancellor announced Tuesday that backup guard Taylor Booze, who
injured her knee Sunday, is out for the season. Andrea Kelly,
another reserve guard, has been sidelined with a nagging foot
injury.

"Without Kelly and Booze we're thin at certain positions,"
Chancellor said. "We've got to stay healthy. (Adrienne) Webb and
others, like Williams and Lutley, have to be ready."

Gunter coached LSU from 1983-2004 and won 708 games in her
40-year career, just the third woman's coach to win 700 games at
the time. Coach of the 1980 Olympic team which did not play in
Moscow because of a U.S. boycott, Gunter died in 2005 and was
posthumously inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall
of Fame later that year.